Opening a .tar.gz file with a single command

tar xzf file.tar.gz

The letters are:

• x - extract
• z - gunzip the input
• f - Read from a file, not stdin

You can use tar with a "z" argument

tar xvfz mytar.tar.gz

If you don't have gnu tar it is still possible to open the file in a single step (although technically still two commands) using a pipe

zcat file.tar.gz |tar x

The only thing that I would add is that z usually only works on gnu tar. The typical UNIX tar won't have this in my experience at least. – Jon Mar 16 at 16:19

The z option works well on my OS X v10.5 (Leopard) as well.

When it comes to memorizing, I think it´s easy to think of what you want and not just some letters.

1. If you want to create an archive, then c will be the first option, else x will be the first option if you want to extract.
2. If you want to compress/decompress with the gzip/gunzip program, then the next option should be z for zip. (All archives ending with .gz must be unzipped with the z option)
3. The last mandatory option is f for the file.

Then you usually end up with these two commands:

• tar czf file.tar.gz /folder_to_archive/*
• tar xzf file.tar.gz

Nowadays tar decompresses automatically if needed. It is enough to write:

tar xf file.tar.gz

Mnemonic: extract file